U.S. Treasury Is World’s Oldest LEED Certified Building

Now, visitors will be treated to two kinds of green at the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, DC. The first is, of course, the green of American money and the second, the green of the building itself. In late December 2011, the Treasury Building earned a LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council, making it the oldest building in the world to do so.

The Treasury Building is more than two city blocks long and was constructed over a period of 33 years between 1836 and 1869. The east and center wings – which comprise the oldest portion of the structure – were designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument, and were built between 1836 to 1842. It’s the third-oldest federal building in Washington D.C., after the White House and the U.S. Capitol, and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972.

The Treasury Building received its LEED Gold certification based on a number of green construction and operation features, including:

Increasing the use of natural day lighting to reduce energy consumption;

“These improvements are paying big dividends,” wrote Dan Tangherlini, Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. ”Not just for the environment, but also for the Department’s bottom line – because going green saves green for taxpayers.”

Check out the video below to hear more about what the Treasury did to achieve LEED Gold:

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This is amazing! I work in a LEED Silver certified property and know how truly hard these ratings are to achieve. Let's hope this is just one of many government buildings to earn these LEED certifications!

The Treasury Building should be a model of federal, state, and muncipal construction as should the way it is maintained should also be an example of modern construction an maintenance. And this building was built to last!